Drive bays in server devices allow for adding peripheral computer hardware devices. For example, server devices typically provide space for installing an array of data storage devices including floppy disk drives, hard-disk drives (HDDs), and CD and DVD drives. The sizes of these peripheral hardware devices have been reduced over the years in order to allow more of these devices to be installed per unit of volume within a serve device. For example, early 8″ drives were reduced down to 5.25″ inch drives of PCs in the 1980s, to current 3.5″ drives.
Today's server devices typically employ 3.5″ drives. The size designation of the drive bay size does define the volume occupied by the drive bay. Rather, the designation of the drive bay size reflects the size of the storage medium contained by the drive bay. For example, a 3.5″ drive bay is named for a dimension of the HDD diskette contained within a 3.5″ HDD. The drive bay itself, however, will have a larger dimension in order to receive the 3.5″ drive.
With the 3.5″ HDD being widely adopted as the standard drive size for server applications, the limitations as to how many drives will fit in a server are determined by two primary factors—the physical size of server and how efficiently the 3.5″ HDDs can be installed onto the server. To provide for efficient installation, the design of the system must consider not only how closely each HDD on the server can be installed to each other, but also whether or not the HDDs may be installed or uninstalled with ease.
HDDs typically communicate with the server device through an interface. For example, an HDD may employ a serial ATA (SATA) standard interface. Designing for the installation process of the HDDs thus must also take into account how these interfaces of the HDD and the server are to be engaged, particularly in tight server quarters designed for efficient use of space.
Accordingly, with the persistence of the use of 3.5 HDD in server applications, there exists a need for a minimally-intrusive apparatus device for facilitating the installation of HDDs in a volume allocated by a drive bay.